Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has managed reviews of the complainants care needs. This is because the complaint is late and I see no reason why she could not have complained sooner and there is insufficient evidence of fault leading to an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Miss X, complains about how the Council has managed its reviews of her care needs. Miss X says the Council reduced her care package meaning her care needs were not met and it took too long to resolve this. Miss X says she has suffered a financial loss and been caused distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement;

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. The complainant now has an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I will consider their comments before making a final decision.

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What happened

7. In April 2019, the Council carried out a review of Miss X’s care needs. It made the decision to reduce her direct payments by 50%. It said this was because her son was now in receipt of support from its Children and Family Services.
8. Miss X asked the Ombudsman to investigate. However, due to Miss X starting legal proceedings against the Council we discontinued our investigation in July 2020.
9. Shortly after we discontinued our investigation, the Council increased Miss X’s direct payments to the level they were in April 2019. Miss X was dissatisfied with this as she felt her needs had worsened since the Council had cut her care package. A new assessment was completed, and Miss X’s package was increased.

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My Assessment

10. I will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about her care needs being cut in April 2019. This is because the events happened too long ago, and I consider that Miss X could have returned to the Ombudsman sooner.
11. When we discontinued our investigation in July 2020, we explained that Miss X could return to us if she decided not to pursue her legal action and if the Council did not do what she wanted. The Council concluded its assessment of Miss X's care needs in December 2020, but Miss X did not return to the Ombudsman until August 2021, some nine months later.
12. Whilst I acknowledge that Miss X and her son did face a challenging time during this period, I am still of the view that Miss X could have complained sooner. Particularly as she had already provided the Ombudsman with details of her complaint.
13. I will not investigate Miss X’s complaints about the Council’s actions after we discontinued our investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing an injustice. The Council reassessed Miss X’s care needs and increased her package of care to the level it was in April 2019, it then increased the package when Miss X disputed its assessment. Miss X says she did not receive a copy of the care plan until some months after the package of support. However, this does not change that the support was in place.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman